Who is the Holy Spirit? What is Real Faith?

Of the Godhead, the Trinity;  who’s who, where are they, and how do I relate?

Now I realize this is like trying to explain the theology taught through a four year seminary degree, but I’m not going there, I wish to keep it simple. Remember too, that I am dealing with the thought, “Can I grieve the Holy Spirit beyond recovery.”   So here we go…

First, God the Father is in Heaven, a ‘Holy Realm’, and we have already grieved Him to the point that our relationship with Him has been broken. (Oh, I can hear the thoughts!) So let me remind you that after the “Fall,” God kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden and set Cherubims with a Flaming Sword to guard the gate, keeping us from re-entering. (Gen 3:24)       

I want you to understand that God is intolerant of any act less than ‘Holy,’ just read the Old Testament. In fact, when God did open a way to worship Him, He set up lots of rules, made a place to enter His presence once a year, and killed anyone entering in his own way. (Lev 10:1-3) That’s why Priests had bells tied to their robes, so when the noise stopped, others would reach in under the veil to pull the dead body out. 

“ For the wages of sin is Death.”

Oh yes, we have grieved God the Father, His heart is broken, because we have chosen our own way. However, the Father’s love for us has not diminished, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

Please get this, Jesus is God’s Son.   Jesus said, “I and My Father are One,” one in the same. (John 10:30)  We all know the stories; Jesus was born to die, given as the final sacrifice to pay the debt of our sin, He went to the cross as a ‘Holy Sacrifice’. However, unlike God the Father, Jesus was human like you and I. He knows our pain, our sorrows, and our struggles. He has experienced the spiritual warfare that we are fighting every day. He understood the price He had to pay to redeem us. In fact, in agony He sweat drops of blood over the cost of our redemption. (Luke 22:44) He even said, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup (let this cost) pass from me.” (Matt 26:39) Folks, this sounds pretty ‘human’ to me, maybe being pushed a little out of His “comfort zone??.” Yet He didn’t follow His own way, He went God’s way, “nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” Jesus completely surrendered! 

Do you get it? Jesus paid the price, Paid In Full! 

How do I know? He rose again and lives today. Now Jesus is sitting in Heaven, and when His Father looks upon us and sees our ‘unholiness’ and moves to judgement, Jesus says; “But Dad, I paid for that, hold up, I have given them the Holy Spirit to work in their hearts, to make them new.” Wow, He has sent to us the Holy Spirit.

Who is the Holy Spirit, what does He do?

Folks, don’t miss this, the Holy Spirit is the one who Labors, getting his hands dirty, working day and night without rest bringing conviction into our guilty lives. He’s at war, fighting to keep Satan and the evil ones at bay. He is the one showing us who God is, what God desires, who Jesus is and what He has done for us. He is trying to break our hearts of stone to give us hearts of flesh, a new heart. The Holy Spirit lives here with us, striving with us daily, telling us that Jesus completed the work (“It is Finished”) of salvation and is offering God’s gift of forgiveness among ‘ALL’ people. It’s this same Holy Spirit that moved among men to write the Word of God to help us know and understand.

The Bible; truth or a fairytale? Pilate asked, “What is truth?” (John 18:38) and I hear many asking the same question today. Yet Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6)  Again, only the Holy Spirit can give you this Faith to believe.

So what is Real Faith? It’s realizing that I must come to God in total surrender, not my way, but trusting in His way through Jesus Christ our Lord. “Just trust and obey, for there is no other way.” Let me make it even more simple, it’s knowing that “I can’t, but He can,” this is the true gospel message.

So how do I grieve the Holy Spirit? We say we believe, we say we trust Him, but then continue to live our lives our own way without total surrender deceiving ourselves. Again, Jesus warns us that many will say, Lord, Lord, but do not do the will of the Father. (Matt 7:21-23)

This is why the Holy Spirit has no rest.

For those who have put their trust and hope in Christ, He works to call us to repentance, keeping us on our knees in grief over our own failures, (Blessed are those that mourn. Matt 5:4) therefore becoming our Comforter, bringing us back to the Joy of the Lord.  For those who have not put their trust in Christ, He is warning of coming Judgement, begging that we would awaken to His call, that with our ears we would hear, and with our eyes we would see… the Truth. Now here it comes, there is an end to His work, for the Spirit of God will not always strive with man. There is coming a day when the Holy Spirit will be ‘taken up’ out of this world, and His work will be done. It will happen in a moment, in the twinkling of the eye, His calling will cease, Heavens door will be closed, and this would grieve the Holy Spirit beyond recovery.

Please friend; today is the day of Salvation. Don’t wait any longer!

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Rom 10:13